Weatherheadlines recently sat down with Sumeet Nath, M.B.A. '99, to learn about his legal research company, the importance of networking and his strong entrepreneurial spirit.

Q: What is your current title and position?I am the cofounder and CEO of Lawwave, a New York-based legal research outsourcing company. My job is to market and develop business with law firms and companies that are interested in outsourcing their legal support functions such as legal research and litigation support. I also run the operations for research.

Q: What degree did you receive from Weatherhead and in what year?I was part of the full-time M.B.A. class of 1999.

Q: What brought you to the Weatherhead School?
At the time I was totally into finance and the faculty of the Weatherhead School were great in finance (still is). I had heard about organizational behavior and the focus on the use of technology in business at the school. All this combined with a good international representation and lower cost of living in Cleveland brought me to the Weatherhead School.

Q: With regards to your Weatherhead experience, how has it been relevant to your current position?As I said, the impetus on technology and use of technology/computers at that time (1997) when computers were just beginning to be adopted has been the greatest learning for me in my present job. I remember having remote meetings at that time facilitated by the IT people and the computer lab. You do not realize at the time what you are learning as you are busy with a finance or marketing assignment. But now when I look back the most useful skills have been the technology and communications skills that I picked up as I went through the two years of M.B.A. classes.

Q: What was your most important take away from your time at the Weatherhead School?I had two major takeaways: Time management and being organized in your professional and personal life.

I just loved the mix of people in the school faculty and the students. The diversity was just so thrilling in many ways. You learned the culture of different countries, how they approached a problem, what skills they possess, and about their work ethics. In working with students in EAT's and group assignments I learned the value of diversity; the teams were so complementary and every one had a different set of skills that they contributed. That was a tremendous learning experience that can only happen in a truly international school. I learned a lot from my fellow Weatherhead students and faculty.

Q: Do you have any advice for current Weatherhead School students? Network a lot and talk to a lot of alumni as only one in 20 alumni will be the right alumni that will associate with you. Do not get dejected as people are busy and definitely do not give up on the alumni.

One of the things that we do not do enough of at the Weatherhead School is to promote entrepreneurship and have the students launch business pilots or plan a business when in school. With so much talent from across the world there can be several companies launched out of school. Many other top M.B.A. schools motivate students to start their own business and submit business plans and review them with alumni or faculty. They also finance or act as venture capitalists if the business plan is good and they are able to do a successful pilot. I feel strongly that more needs to be done to further develop the entrepreneurial spirit of the Weatherhead School students. I am very interested in being part of this effort.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time? I am learning to play African Djembe drums. I am hoping that my friends and I can produce some music soon to put on Youtube. I enjoy good music and listening to different musical instruments.

Q: What is the best book you have recently read?I’ve really enjoyed Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Q: Spring is finally here. What is your favorite spring activity?I can't wait to start working on the garden as the neighbors already started working on it. My favorite spring activity has to be working on the garden. It takes a lot of time and I enjoy it.